Tuesday, November 6, 2012

6.13 - The Lesson

When Fawn returns home late the following morning her first thought is wondering why her husband is still home when he should be at work. It’s almost ten already! Silly boy might get in trouble so she wakes him up.

“Fawn?” There’s relief in his voice when he sees her, his sore muscles begging for more sleep considering he drifted off only a few hours ago.

He can’t believe his eyes when he sees her, quickly pulling her in for an embrace. “Thank the Watcher you’re safe! I was so worried, Fawn, where were you? Your mom called last night looking for you, she said you’d left early yesterday evening and no one could find her and I was so scared something had happened to you! What happened?”

Fawn’s face falls. “Dahlia called you? We had a fight and just couldn’t go home so I went out, you should worry so much. I slept by the falls.”

On top of the lack of sleep and worry, Gem’s just not able to be the level headed one right now. “Fawn you’re pregnant! Do you know how dangerous it is to be out on the cold right now? So many things could have gone wrong, you could have even lost our baby! Weren’t you thinking?”

“Oh give me a break, Gem! I didn’t do anything wrong. The kid’s fine and I am too, not that you seem to really care. I was having a bad day! So what if I didn’t think one time? It happens!”

“It SHOULDN’T happen! We aren’t kids anymore! We have responsibilities, especially to our children and you had no right to worry anyone like that! Do you have idea how scared I was? The full moon is coming up! I thought something had happened to you!”

“Oh be a man!” Fawn yells back at him. “I had my own shit to deal with!”

She looks away from him, confident she's won the fight.

But then: “I thought we agreed to be there for each other. We’re married now! If something was bothering you enough that you felt you couldn’t go home you should have at least called and talked to me. You know I won’t judge you, no matter how bad it is. I always felt comfortable enough to talk to you and tell you everything.”

His words cut deep at Fawn’s heart, finally waking her up to just how she hurt him. “Gem I’m so sorry... I don’t know what’s happening to me I just-” She takes a deep breath to steady herself before telling him what happened. “Last night when I went to visit my parents... my mom told me they’d stolen me from Linda Rodgers when I was just a baby. They left their own daughter, Sophie, in my place just because they thought it would be funny to watch a human raise a fairy.”

Gem’s heart breaks. “Oh Fawn... I didn’t know, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to snap at you like I did, I just got so scared that something had happened to you and you know how I worry. And with you being pregnant of course I thought maybe you’d passed out or gone into early labour or... or... gosh I don’t even know. I wasn’t thinking straight!”

“Neither of us were.” Fawn sighs before grabbing his hand and placing it on her belly. “But feel, she’s kicking. She’s alright and so am I.”

“... She?”

“It’s a girl.” Fawn nods. “I don’t know how I know, but I do.”

Having Jade in the house makes life easier. The couple gets to cuddle on the bed for a half hour while she makes them a delicious and filling breakfast and then sits down with them to pull them into a relaxed conversation about absolutely nothing. Just to make them talk without actually needing to say anything.

Nalin’s half way through his toddler years! Gem only just realized! Shouldn’t they, like, plan a party or something?

Jade just sighs to herself. These kids are so easy to distract.

Fawn goes back to writing. Markus keeps her company while he reads one of her older novels, a short fiction piece called “Wingless” about high school bullying. It really is quite a moving piece.

Richard Sari-Von Gould is a child now (almost a teen since he’s older than Topaz). He’s a cutie.

His mom is just as cute. Unlike Gem, she fits into the upper crust socialite life very well, being the perfect politician’s wife while pursuing a music career on the side. She is very very happy with her life, and loves her husband dearly.

She invites her brother inside and Gem quickly spills all his sorrows. He’s scared that Fawn becoming a fairy is going to eventually change her into an entirely different person, he’s scared of the idea he could be facing raising two children all on his own while their mother goes out and forgets to come home, and to top it all off Nico is STILL avoiding him!

“Oh come on, Gemmy. You’re over thinking things. Fawn’s still the same girl deep down and you’ll just have to remind her of that every chance you get. She loves Nalin and Jade and Markus aren’t going anywhere just yet. And fu... uh, forget about dad. He’s just being his usual self. He doesn’t want to admit you’re getting older and seems to think you’ll live forever if he just ignores the issue long enough.”

“... Idiocy runs in the family, doesn’t it.”

She actually breaks into a smile. “Yes. Yes it does.”

Fox Rodgers-Wolff becomes a child.

Gem meets up with the Rodgers-Wolff family at the pool to spend some time with his daughter. She’s turning into a teenager soon so Gem plans on spending as much time with her as he can before she gets moody.

Topaz doesn’t understand why her daddy doesn’t live with her, but Fox’s daddy does. Sophie tried explaining that Gem was her ex-boyfriend, that he’s married to someone else and has his own family with her, a family that Topaz isn’t part of. It confuses and infuriates her.

Gem doesn’t pick up on her frustration, but he does invite her to Nalin’s upcoming party.

Meanwhile, back at home Fawn is spending time with her baby boy. He seems fascinated by contraptions and machinery. Fawn already knows he’s a genius, so that’s no surprise to her.

He’s also adorable. So there’s that.

Gem offers to tuck Nalin into bed before heading to sleep himself, leaving Fawn restless and alone in the living room... At least until Jade joins her.

This lesson thing is taking too long, and Fawn and Gem seem to have forgotten all about the blue potion so Jade takes matters into her own hands.

“You seem bothered, sweetie. Tell me what’s wrong?”

Jade has always been someone Fawn respected, even before falling in love with Gem, but she still hesitates to speak. “I’m... scared that I made the wrong decision.”

“And what decision was that?”

“To become a fairy. I feel myself changing, becoming someone or something I don’t like. I feel myself wanting to prank Gem or scare Nalin, and it scares me that I could do something like that and think its funny! I was never meant to be a fairy...”

“You were never meant to be a fairy.” Jade repeats with a smile. “Interesting that you say that. How do we know what we were truly meant to be? Some are born human but only feel complete once they’ve been turned into a vampire or the like. Others are born as a member of the occult but feel good as humans. Goodness, my own grandfather gave up his immortality in a heart beat to be with the woman he loved.”

“But that situation doesn’t apply to me.” Fawn insists. “I always thought I was meant to be a fairy but now that I am one I just don’t like it. It feels wrong!”

Jade’s silent for a long time before deciding to open up. “Gem doesn’t know this story, so it’s up to you if you want to tell him. When I was a teenager, Gem’s great grandfather kidnapped me, Nico and Coral. While I was unconscious my fae relations gave me the strength I needed to save myself and Coral. The price was that I could never die from anything but age. Some would find that a good thing but I... I thought of everything as a curse. I wanted to get rid of my gifts and I went into alchemy to find a way to turn myself fully human. But when I finally managed to create it I just couldn’t take it.”

Fawn feels a shred of hope. “You found a way to become human? What did you ever do with it?”

“What do you think I did with it?” Jade can’t help but laugh. “Well what do you think? I certainly didn’t need it anymore but I did find someone else who did. She just didn’t realize she needed it until now.”

“Thank you, Jade. Just, thank you.”

Markus meets Jade upstairs in their room. “I take it you lesson has finally hit home?”

“It has.” Jade smiles. “And its finally sunk in for me as well. Thank you for helping me see I didn’t have to change to feel normal, Markus.”

“It was my pleasure, love.”

Downstairs, Fawn silently slips into her own bed, careful not to wake Gem.

The blue bottle rests on her bedside table, glowing softly and adding a calming glow to the room, waiting for Fawn to be able to drink it down.

That won’t take long. Because in the early morning hours Fawn goes into labour.

---

Baby X has been born in game (actually... is almost a child in game). And is SO friggin adorable. Like I cannot even express in words. But Nalin is my favourite so the story will probably be centred around him.

I'm using Topaz as the character base for Nalin's future love interest... this feels slightly perverse.

The way isn't really as clear as it's shown here, but Jade certainly helped show her that there are decisions she needs to make, and that she needs to actually think about WHY she's doing things before she just does them.

Yay - I loved this chapter, and your pictures were great, capturing the expressions and feelings of such a difficult discovery and transition. Jade to the rescue, that's an awesome story twist and so glad Fawn came to the conclusion on her own and didn't need thunked over the head with it. :)